


The Blue Box in the Woods

by Slytherins_Ghost



Series: The Blue Box in the Woods [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Doctor Who is a Show as well as real life, i dont know i'll add more tags if i think of them, or if their needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 14:08:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13366329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slytherins_Ghost/pseuds/Slytherins_Ghost
Summary: What was supposed to be a uneventful walk through the woods, turns into something very different when Minette find a run down old police box deeper in the woods than is logical.





	1. The Lonely Man and His Box

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: BBC owns Doctor Who and all related characters and places, except Minette who is solely my own.
> 
> Some house keeping before we get into the story: this story was inspired by a picture i saw on Pinterest. I will post a separate work with the picture as well as other pictures, and links to sites i used/will use as inspiration, as well as notes explanations about things in this universe where explanations are probably wanted/need by you the reader, but don't really fit into the flow of the story
> 
> one more thing: i'll be the first to admit that the Doctor is definately at least slight OOC in this story, the main reason being I'm very bad at properly writing other peoples characters, the fact that i don't read much if any Doctor Who Fan Fiction, therefore not exposing myself to the different ways people write the Doctor and from that figuring out the best way for me to write him in character doesn't help, but within the context of this story the OOC-ness of the Doctor works
> 
> enough of that, there will be more notes at the bottom but for now, enjoy!

Minette walked slowly through the woods, more of a meandering wonder than a true walk. Tall, ancient pine trees surrounded her, reaching for the gloomy sky, their fallen needles carpeting the ground, sparsely littered with pine cones, just as common as the carpeting of pine needles was swathes of ferns, most of which looked to be on the wrong side of dying, leaves all brown, with a few spots of light yellow-green fighting through. Doted among the pine trees were other far smaller trees, that Minette could not identify, some like the ferns, had death creeping upon them, though admittedly they could just be deciduous, she wasn’t quite sure, as to be sure of that she would have to know the date and time of year, which was something she hadn’t paid attention to for quite some time, how much time was also something she hadn’t paid attention to.

As Minette walked she ran her hand along the trunks and occasional leaves of the trees around her, not paying much mind to where she went, too lost in thought as she was. She went on walks like this quite often, mostly just to get out of the house for a bit.  Introvert that she was, with a grandmother that had liked her more than she had liked Minette’s mother and had, therefore left her quite impressive wealth to Minette upon her death a few years ago. The money meant she didn’t need to work, which was good because she didn’t really want to, and so she spent much of her time at home watching TV and movies (which mostly consisted of re-watching Doctor Who, Sherlock, Supernatural and Harry Potter or watching Netflix) when she wasn’t doing what she was currently, wondering through the impressive pine forest that her home backed onto. She jumped up onto the end of a moss-covered log, hand resting on the still standing tree beside her to keep her balance, before jumping down again swinging to the right around the tree, much like a child would on the pole of a street sign, when something caught her attention.

About 20 meters in front of her was a faded royal blue box, ‘police public call box’ written across top, like it had been pulled straight from Doctor Who, though in far worse condition than it should be. Minette paused trying to comprehend the sight in front of her, someone had left a police box out in the woods, how they got it right out here was something she couldn’t quite figure out, as she slowly started to approach it. Old and rotting away as it was, vines growing up its side, it was still quite cool. And even though a part of her knew it wasn’t the brightest idea to look inside and that upon doing so all she would most likely find was four blue walls and _not_ the main console of the Tardis, the larger Whovian part of her that _really_ wanted to, completely overshadowed that other part. She rounded the side of it, coming face to face with the doors, windows cracked and covered with film of dirt, the sign not much better words faded as they were and those that weren’t faded were obscured with more dirt. It was still very cool though. Cautiously Minette reached out and laid her hand on the door next the handle, as soon as she did though it warmed under her touch, lights flickering on, and quiet _Vwoorp_ sounded from inside. She leaped backwards and away from it.

_No way_. It couldn’t be. It wasn’t. She had just been watching too much Doctor Who and most definitely reading to many fanfictions recently, her inner fangirl was just jumping to completely insane conclusions. It wasn’t real. Doctor Who wasn’t real. The Doctor and the Tardis weren’t real.

As this last thought passed through her head the door to the police box started to open and out peaked a man with messy brown hair and sharp cheekbones made even sharper by hollowed cheeks. Dressed in a dirty, untucked, button-down shirt, bow tie resting undone around his neck, suspenders hanging around his hips one side unclipped completely, skinny jeans a lot looser than they should be, even though they looked to have fit properly at some point, all in all, the man who stood be before her was very under fed and dirty, and gave off a strong Matt Smith vibe. Still, it couldn’t be, this was just some extremely fanatic, and most definitely unbalance fan out in the woods doing god knows what, and the fact that she was still entertaining the thought that this man was the actual Doctor most likely put her in the same league of unbalanced. Then the man spoke up.

“Um… hello” he said in a raspy and quite unused voice, a confused tone colouring his words, few as they were. Not knowing quite how to handle the situation Minette replied in a quiet, unsure voice.

“Hello”

At her words, the man stepped out of the Police box entirely, pine needles sticking to his socked feet. Minette could almost see the cogs in his head sputter to life and start to turn as he tilted his head to the side slightly and considered her, perhaps trying to figure out if she was real or not. He glanced briefly back to the Police box behind him before seemingly to come to some sort of decision on the matter, whether that decision was that she was real or that it didn’t really matter she couldn’t tell, a determined looked fell over his face as he strode forward. Covering the distance between them in two long strides he grabbed Minette’s wrist and started to tug her towards the Police Box.

“Come on” he said in an urgent but still raspy voice, Minette tried to resist and pull her hand back but for such a thin and underfed man he was surprisingly strong.

“Now hold on a moment” Minette spoke up as he reached the door of the Police box “I’m not going in th-” she cut of as she was tugged through the door. Coming to a standstill just inside the doors, the man let go of her wrist continuing on without her. Minettes brain shut down as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing.

As her brain sputtered back to life thoughts began to spin through her head. It was bigger on the inside. _It was bigger on the inside_. She was in the Tardis, it was real! It was all real! Donna, Martha, Jack, Amy and Rory, and oh god Rose, they were all real. This Dirty, underfed and unkempt man before her was _the Doctor_. Though, admittedly she could be losing her mind or had fallen somewhere along her walk, knocked herself out and this was all just a dream.

As the Doctor danced around the console of the Tardis flipping switches, lights and other things flickering to life as he did so, Minette came to the conclusion that this was all too vivid and real to be a dream and mad or not she didn’t have the imagination to hallucinate something like this. She started to think of all the horrible things that had possibly happened to the man before her, all the pain he had suffered, and really she could blame him for hiding out in the woods like this.

“Your real” she choked almost silently, starting to feel faint. In the quiet of the Tardis the man heard her words clearly and turned towards her, confusion once again written across his face. She raised a hand pointed at him before repeating “Your real, Rose and Jack and Martha and Amy and Rory, River and Donna, and Daleks and Cybermen, and…and Weeping Angels, the Silence, and the Master, the whole show its all real.”  

“How…how do you know all that? And… wait… wait what show?” he asked voice sharpening and losing all raspy-ness it had, coming closer as he did so, pain clear in eyes as he remember all those he had lost. Completely overwhelmed Minette forewent replying and instead flew forward and wrapped her arms around the man, crying into his shoulder.

This man and those people had all seemed so real, for so long, that show had been and still was such an important part of her life and the fact that all the pain they and this man had suffered was to at least some degree real, and that she was standing in the bigger on the inside Tardis, was just a bit too much for her.

“How do you know all that?” he asked again, arms up in the air, clearly unsure on what to do about the weird, crying girl hugging him and instead choosing to concentrate on getting answers “and why did the Tardis react to you? it shouldn’t have done that, who are you?”

Wiping her eyes Minette stepped back “My Name is Minette Sopatra. And I know all that because there’s a tv show called Doctor Who, it’s all about a you, a man, a time lord who travels through time and space in his Tardis, which stands for time and relative dimension in space, with his various companions, you visit different times and places throughout the universe, and normally end up in some kind of life threatening situation, due to various alien races. The show is about 50 years old, its very popular and well known.”

It was as she was explaining the premise of the show that Minette remembered what she was wearing, her shirt was a long-sleeved shirt with ‘I will love you past present and future’ written on cream coloured banner surrounding a picture of the Tardis with two hearts on the doors, her blue dyed hair faded with a few centimetres of regrowth thrown up in a messy ponytail with a Tardis clip at the base. Blushing, Minette looked at the floor, and pulled on the hem of her shirt, which in hindsight was probably a bad idea as it drew the Doctor’s attention to it. All she could think as the doctor examine the shirt was that at least she wasn’t wearing the one that had a dalek in an apron holding a cup of coffee with ‘caffeinate’ written down the side.

Humming the Doctor turned around and went back to the console, pulling the screen in front of him he tapped at it for a few minutes, Minette stayed glued to where she was, she had after all just cried on the Doctor wearing a shirt declaring her eternal love for him, so for the sake of her dignity it was probably best to not draw more attention to herself. It was then that the Tenth Doctor’s voice started to play throughout the Tardis, it seemed that the Doctor had found the show. He watched that for a few more minutes, listening to the theme song for the show before stopping it, it was quite for a few seconds before epic music started playing for few seconds followed by the vworping sound of the Tardis and grunting, Minette would have recognised those sounds anywhere as it was from one of her most watched episodes ‘the Eleventh Hour’. The Doctor stared at the screen for a few seconds before looking down at himself and then back up the screen as the theme song started again.

“That is very strange” he muttered, stopping the video just as a young Amelia pond came onto screen praying to Santa.

He tapped away at the screen for a few more minutes, before stopping and reading. Taking a step forward Minette peered over his shoulder at what he was reading, he was on the Wikipedia page for the history of Doctor Who. He snorted, clearly knowing something she did not.

“River” he said annoyance colouring his tone “should’ve guessed”

Minette frowned, familiar with the origins of the show, she didn’t see how River Song could have been involved in its creation but decided it was best not ask if anything she knew about the woman was true. The Doctor turned back to her. It seemed as though with his questions about the tv show answered he was moving on the next harder to answer question

“Well that answers two questions, who you are and how you know so much” he started, staring at her intently “it doesn’t however answer my other question. Why did the Tardis react to you like it did?”

Minette just stared for a few seconds before realising what exactly it was that was scaring her in that moment, the Doctor had his patented ‘there’s something about you that I don’t know or recognise and if you don’t explain what it is right now, you’re in trouble’ look. A look that if not heeded never really ended well for the recipient.

“I have no idea. I just came across it here in the woods and wanted a look inside, and it just sort of came to life. I don’t know why, I swear” Minette answered quickly throwing her hands up in the.

The doctor studied her for a few more seconds, before nodding once, believing her.

“Well then, let’s find out”  

He grinned before spinning off around the console. Minette briefly considered turning around and going back home, because if she had learnt anything from watching and re-watching Doctor Who what had to be close to a million times by now, she knew that a Doctor intent on solving a mystery like this, was not the most fun thing in the world to be on the receiving end of. She rejected the idea quite quickly though, because if there was anything else she knew about the man it was that simply walking out of the Tardis was not going to get him to drop the matter, and he would probably be waiting for her when she got home, or would even just materialise around on her way. Sighing Minette made her way over to the seat to the side and made herself comfortable.


	2. She Knows Best

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter is about 1000 words shorter that the first as is sort just let the chapter flow and end where it feels right right but i promise no chapters will be shorter than 1000 words 
> 
> Thats all for now so enjoy! 
> 
> (although officially my first multi-chapter fic, go me!)

Minette stood beside the main console of the Tardis arms outstretched, level with her shoulders, as the Doctor had directed her to do. She watched as the he flipped some switches and tapped at the screen in front of him a couple times, studying it intently, as the Tardis scanned her and ran the various other the tests Doctor deemed necessary. He had, before running the tests, runoff deeper into the Tardis and come back minutes later, fully dressed in clean clothes, bow done up, suspenders on properly, tweed jacket over the top of it all, and boots on his feet. Though the wardrobe change did nothing to hide how worryingly thin he still was.

“Well” he started, apparently done with running tests “according to the Tardis you are a Human, with no alien blood or other such abnormalities of any kind. It doesn’t make sense” he finished, the last words spoken in more of mutter to himself than to Minette.

He continued to stare at the screen lost in thought, muttering to himself almost inaudibly every now and then. Minette slowly lowered her arms and stared at the Doctor, it was clear he had to some degree forgotten her presence, she was quite okay with that though, it gave her the opportunity to consider the man.  It was obvious that he had been alone for quite some time, that fact was easily discernible from the outside appearance of the Tardis, let alone from how the inside had appeared not twenty minutes ago. She wondered how long exactly it had been for the man since he had lost Amy and Rory, or had contact with anyone at all. Perhaps that was why the Tardis reacted to Minette, she thought, it was worried about the man that resided within, her one permanent passenger. It had been some minutes now since the Doctor had last spoken and so Minette decided it was probably best to draw the man out of his mind and get some answers for herself.

“Doctor?” she called breaking the silence that had settled upon them, apart from the slight background humming of the Tardis. As he turned to her, finally remembering her presence, Minette continued “why exactly are you so worried about the Tardis reacting me? I mean… it’s just from my understanding, it’s sentient isn’t it? and so it reacting to me as it did, isn’t that strange, is it?”

The Doctor shook his head “I had her in a sort of sleep mode, she shouldn’t have been aware enough to react to you. Which is what makes her reacting so strange.” The Doctor replied, somewhat absently, hands waving about in a way that was very reminiscent of Matt Smith’s portrayal of the man, still frowning and still turning the problem over in his head at the same time.

As the Doctor turned back to the screen Minette nodded to show she had heard and understood his reply, though she doubted he was actually watching for one. The more she thought about it though, the more it didn’t seem like something to be so worried about. In the show it had been repeatedly shown that the Tardis was akin to a living, thinking being. If that was the case, which upon further thought seemed very likely if the episode ‘The Doctors Wife’ was anything to go by, then it seemed to her that is was quite possible for it to wake up on its own and not let the doctor know. Like a teen pretending to be asleep when their mother comes in to their bedroom at midnight to check and make sure that they are indeed asleep, and not awake going through the dark fandom recesses of the internet, (which they most definitely are). She mentioned none this out loud though, unsure as to how the Doctor would receive such a theory.

Minette continued to watch the Doctor as he once again slipped into his mind considering the problem at hand. It was quite clear that he had been alone for too long, completely isolated in his despair and an alone Doctor was never a good thing, for anyone, but most especially for the Doctor himself. She couldn’t let him continue to do this to himself, wouldn’t let the loss of Amy and Rory be the straw that broke the camel’s back, broke such a strong man. Coming to a decision, Minette spoke up again.

“Is it a bad thing that the Tardis reacted to me? I mean it’s not like it opened up for me and even if it did I’d never use my power for bad if you know what I mean” she said with a small smile, she was quite for a few seconds before quietly adding “and if you are worried about that you could always take me with you” she trailed off suggestively

The Doctor turned to her and stared at her for a minute before opening his mouth “Take you with me? Adventure around the universe and through time together? You’d be willing to do that? Even after watching that show and seeing all that has happened to me and more importantly those that travel with me? You’d take that risk?”

Minette clear her throat and shrugged, shuffling her feet slightly and picking at her finger nails. She was unsure as to how much she should share with the Doctor about her life, and how truly easy it would be to leave it all behind and not look back, come what may. Taking a deep, steeling breath, she decided that in this case the best way to get what she wanted, which was to travel with the doctor, was to tell him the truth about why she’d be willing to go with him, well at least part of the truth. She didn’t think she should tell him that the main reason she wished to go with him was that she was worried about what would come of the man if he continued with this self-isolation.

“Well, yeah you’d be surprised how many people would, risk that, that is…and besides it’s not like anyone would miss me. My father died when I was little and my mother is god knows where high on god knows what, she probably doesn’t even remember she has a daughter, any other family I had are all dead now and I don’t really have any friends, the curse of an introvert you know.” She joked, well tried to anyway.

Minette was quite aware how lonely her life was, well not entirely lonely she did have the many other introverts on the internet, but maybe just this once, her IRL lack of social life was a good thing. The Doctor stared at her some more, which he seemed to be doing quite a lot at the moment, (hopefully it was something he would quit doing soon). Suddenly he grinned and seemingly came to life with renewed energy.

“Alright then. Where shall we go first?” he inquired clapping his hand together and starting to bounce around the console like the energiser bunny. Flicking switches, pulling on various knobs and levers, and pushing on sliders. It seems she was going with him.

“I don’t know, show me something…awe-inspiring.” She commanded happily, drawing out ‘something’ in thought and smiling widely at the doctor.

“Something awe-inspiring it is” he enthused.

The Doctor pulled on a lever with yellow lights on it and the Tardis came to life, jolting and causing her to almost fall. Just catching herself in time on one of the handles on the console, her eyes were drawn to the tall column in the centre of it and the bulbous glass tube thing in the middle moving up and down. During all this the Doctor had been yammering away about various planets, places and natural phenomena, time periods and peoples to visit. Minette smiled, a laugh bubbling up and out of mouth, she was going on an adventure with the Doctor, it was a dream come true and if she had gone mad then she truly didn’t care.

**Author's Note:**

> Some More Notes: I do plan for this to be a multi chapter fic, but as i am really bad about actually finish personal projects like this, I'm considering doing separate sort-of self contained stories with only a couple of chapters, sort of like episodes i suppose, or if i do post to this story specifically doing so a couple chapters at a time with no major over arching story line through out the whole of the fic. 
> 
> I don't know, I'm still figuring that out but as this story stands the first two chapters of this can be read as it own story, with no continuation from that point, when I add more to the story if that is what you wish to do.
> 
> Your opinions and suggestions are most definitely welcome. 
> 
> Also if you found any spelling or grammatical errors, please tell me and i'll do my best to correct them, as i know those sort of things annoy me when I'm reading fics, not in a 'ugh i cant believe you did that' way more of a 'now I'm going be correcting the spelling, grammar and rewriting sentences in my head to make sense, instead of enjoying reading this work' sort of way, so if you did find any mistakes leave a comment and i'll fix it.


End file.
